Sunday, April 08, 2007

Episode 24- Titanic artefacts restoration

We need to complete the Museum commission by restoring the researching the objects we have salvaged. We reminded ourselves of the layout of our restoration room (we mapped this out a long time ago), of the equipment in the room and our own restoration kits. we then went to work, carefully restoring the objects, filling in the restoration report forms as we worked. I 'evesdropped' on the restorers, asking about what they were doing / how it was going / what the objects were etc.

We met together at the end to share some of the artefacts we had been restoring. We were particularly interested in a locket with a photo inside that seemed to have 4 diamonds inlaid. The child who had been restoring this could give a clear description of what it looked like, so I began to draw it on the whiteboard. I then asked if she would mind other peole taking a look. She placed the locket on a chair and the others took in in turns to go to the chair, pick it up, sit and look at it carefully and tell the others one thing that they noticed.

The detail that we built up was amazing. One person found a spring that revealed a secret compartmant with another photo inside. Someone else noticed some worn bits of writing engraved into the gold. Somone else thought that the diamonds might not be real. 'I know how to test for real diamonds!' someone said 'you try to cut a piece of glass with them - if it cuts the glass it's a real diamond!'. So he went out with a small team to do tests on the diamonds while we went on discussing the locket. We started speculating on the person who might have owned it. I asked them if they would like to go back in time and meet the person it belonged to and went into role as they asked me questions. I love the way they slip into the conventions so easily now - they're questioning was superb - they wheedled the whole story out of me, however ambigous I tried to be! They would do a superb job as interrogators!!

At this pont the Spring Term was drawing to a close. we had completed our big commission (it had taken two weeksof real time!)/ All that was left was to send the artefacts and reports to the museum and wait for their feedback. We reflected on the whole commission - high points and low points. Had we stuck to our company promises? Had we kept to the rules of the dive? Were we proud of our work? Was there any part of the job we could have done better? The trapped team and the rescue came up as the significant moment of the whole mission. We felt that we should be proud of the fact that we were the sort of people who are willing to risk their own lives to save their friends. 'They would have done the same for us', someone said.